Job description
- 1-year fixed-term consultancy contract, starting February 2025
- Part-time, ideally four half-days a week but alternative patterns will be considered
- Based in a Commonwealth country in East Africa, preferably Nairobi, Kenya
- Fee range of £14,000 - £16,000 (the appointed candidate will need to complete and comply with local tax regulations)
Summary
The Africa Regional Engagement Coordinator will be based in a Commonwealth country in East Africa and will be responsible for representing the ACU across the African continent. Candidates based in Nairobi, Kenya are particularly encouraged to apply, but other, well-connected locations will be considered.
The role involves building relationships and strengthening engagement with the ACU’s member universities and key stakeholders on the African continent, supporting the organisation of events, and providing country insights to support reports and briefings for ACU staff and its Secretary General and Chief Executive.
Requirements
The consultant will ideally have experience of formulating global and/or regional-specific stakeholder and/or membership engagement programmes which develop, retain and recruit members, with a focus on the Higher Education sector. The consultant will have insight on how member-led organisations can maximise services and benefits at a regional level, with experience of working within different cultural contexts. The consultancy role will suit someone who has the vision to evaluate, implement and test different ways to engage and connect our members in the region and has previous experience within the Higher Education or International Development sectors.
This is a part-time, fixed-term consultancy agreement for an initial 12 months, starting February 2025 and will carry a consultancy fee in the range of £14,000 - £16,000 per year. Invoicing will be in equal monthly instalments.
Key Deliverables
The consultant will be required to:
- Work as part of the Membership Engagement team, reporting to the Senior Regional Engagement Manager (based in Mumbai, India) to plan and deliver engagement activities in Africa.
- Attend regular weekly meetings online.
- Present (in person and online) to existing and prospective members in the region about how to maximise their ACU member benefits, using ACU collateral and tailoring slides for each institution.
- Delivering onboarding calls for new ACU members across Africa.
- Travel on the African continent to engage with members, stakeholders, and represent the ACU at events and conferences, as agreed within the regional engagement workplan.
- Support the ACU Membership Operations and Finance teams in chasing late membership payments with members in Africa, and all other aspects of the membership renewal process, through creative and personalised approaches.
- Co-develop a stakeholder relationship plan to maximise member engagement, growth and retention targets across Africa including regular contact with ACU Ambassadors at member universities and act as representative for the ACU externally, developing relationships with universities in Africa, working closely with the ACU’s Senior Membership Engagement Manager.
- Engage with relevant higher education stakeholders such as national and regional representative bodies, other university associations, industry chambers, research organisations and think tanks across Africa.
- Support with the organisation of in-person and virtual events to support and strengthen the ACU’s profile in Africa (and across the Commonwealth), for example roundtables, meetings with partners, incoming and outgoing delegations and facilitating ACU presence at sector events.
- Support the ACU’s Policy and Research team by sharing regional insights, feeding into policy briefings, and contributing to the ACU’s understanding of the policy landscape and major policy developments in Africa.
- Daily usage of the ACU’s CRM system (Civi) to record engagement with members and other stakeholders, ensuring a consistent and high-level of data integrity, and support the ongoing work to develop Civi as the single source of truth for the ACU’s data. This will include, but is not limited to creating relevant member engagement reports when requested and providing information for Secretary General briefings and meetings.
- Agree to and work under the ACU’s Data Protection and Cyber Security regulations. The appointed candidate will be supplied with the technical equipment needed for carrying out the tasks as outlined above. This includes the requirement of completing regular online training courses covering those areas.
Applied Knowledge, Skills and Expertise
- Degree educated or equivalent experience.
- Experienced relationship manager who can develop long lasting relationships across varying levels of seniority.
- Excellent interpersonal and presentation skills including written communication.
- Strategic thinker with the ability to adapt to changing priorities.
- Commitment to teamwork, with the ability to work independently and show initiative as well as exercise sound judgement.
- A proactive approach to work, an ability to manage own workload. Respectful of pre-agreed deadlines.
- Experience of planning and delivering events.
- Understanding of basic budgeting and reporting mechanisms.
- Strong attention to detail.
- An appreciation of different cultural contexts and the ability to adapt to different communication styles.
- Understanding of, and affinity with, issues in international higher education in Africa. Ideally, able to demonstrate existing or past relationship with national and international bodies.
At the ACU, we welcome and encourage applications enquiries from everyone regardless of gender, race, religion, marital status, disability, age, and sexual orientation.
Closing date: Friday 17th January 2025 at 17.00 GMT
Please send an email to aditya.malkani@acu.ac.uk with your CV (maximum 2 pages) and a Cover Letter (maximum 2 pages) attached as pdf files outlining how your skills, knowledge and experience meet the criteria listed here. Please also include your motivation for working as a consultant for the ACU.
About the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU)
The ACU is a global network of more than 400 universities in over 40 countries with a shared commitment to building a better world through higher education. Accredited by the Commonwealth and incorporated by Royal Charter, the ACU has been fostering international collaboration in higher education since 1913. Acting as the voice for higher education in the Commonwealth, the ACU convenes and connects universities, individuals and partners, and provides resources, programmes and educational opportunities that strengthen the capacity of universities and individuals. www.acu.ac.uk